CRT Cloud Computing & Infrastructure 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the role of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) in cloud infrastructure?
- To store backup snapshots
- To distribute content from edge servers closer to end users (Correct answer)
- To manage database replication
- To enforce firewall rules
Correct answer: To distribute content from edge servers closer to end users
A CDN caches content at geographically distributed edge servers, reducing latency by serving users from the nearest point of presence.
Question 2: In Infrastructure as Code (IaC), what does Terraform primarily use to define cloud resources?
- Python scripts
- XML manifests
- HCL configuration files (Correct answer)
- YAML playbooks
Correct answer: HCL configuration files
Terraform uses HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) in .tf files to declaratively define and provision cloud infrastructure.
Question 3: Which cloud cost model charges users only for the compute seconds their function consumes, with no idle billing?
- Reserved instances
- Spot instances
- Serverless / Function as a Service (Correct answer)
- Dedicated hosts
Correct answer: Serverless / Function as a Service
Serverless FaaS (e.g., AWS Lambda) bills only for actual execution time in milliseconds, eliminating costs when code is not running.
Question 4: What does RPO (Recovery Point Objective) measure in a cloud disaster recovery plan?
- How fast systems restart after failure
- The maximum acceptable data loss measured in time (Correct answer)
- The number of backup copies retained
- The cost of a failover event
Correct answer: The maximum acceptable data loss measured in time
RPO defines the maximum age of data that must be recoverable after a disaster, essentially the tolerable data loss window.
Question 5: Which cloud networking component acts as a virtual firewall, controlling inbound and outbound traffic at the instance level?
- Network ACL
- Security Group (Correct answer)
- Route Table
- Internet Gateway
Correct answer: Security Group
Security Groups function as stateful virtual firewalls attached directly to instances, evaluating all inbound and outbound traffic rules.
Question 6: What is the main advantage of using a managed database service (like AWS RDS) over self-hosting a database on a VM?
- Lower raw storage cost
- Automatic patching, backups, and failover managed by the provider (Correct answer)
- Full root access to the database engine
- No licensing fees for any database engine
Correct answer: Automatic patching, backups, and failover managed by the provider
Managed database services offload operational tasks like patching, automated backups, and multi-AZ failover to the cloud provider.
Question 7: In Kubernetes, what is a Pod?
- A physical server node
- The smallest deployable unit containing one or more containers (Correct answer)
- A load balancer configuration
- A persistent volume claim
Correct answer: The smallest deployable unit containing one or more containers
A Pod is Kubernetes' basic execution unit, wrapping one or more tightly coupled containers that share network and storage resources.
CRT Cloud Computing & Infrastructure 3
What is the role of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) in cloud infrastructure?